[Question] Linux version ?

[Teodosio]

I want it too!

[Steph'nie]

I want to give new life to this thread since some months were passed from last post and a lot happened: Steam for linux has arrived (I know, still beta), Unity 4.0 for linux is here, a lot of kickastarter projects release linux version from day 0... So, I think there's little reason to evade the question: what about a Linux port of Endless Space?

Endless Space has been developed on a previous Unity version (3.5.6). A Linux port is quite unlikely to be honest, despite Steam or Unity 4 (at least for now, we don't plan on porting the game). It is unfortunately not a simple update, as it would require lots of dev time and we chose focus on other priorities.

[bull3t]

Endless Space has been developed on a previous Unity version (3.5.6).

Isn't Unity 4 backward compatible?

A Linux port is quite unlikely to be honest, despite Steam or Unity 4

Ok, so it seems it isn't an engine problem, after all, but priorities and Linux is at bottom of the stack; good to know...

[amverona]

Hi, I'm new here. As developer, I agree that is very hard to move code to Linux. But at least you could help us to setup using Wine.

I use Ubuntu 12.10 64.

Thanks!

[Syniurge]

Steph'nie is the next Amplitude project Unity-based? If you get better acquainted with Unity 4 you'll have a better idea of how hard it would be to port Endless Space to Unity 4.
According to my limited experience with Unity 4 and according to the FAQ it seems rather easy to import a Unity 3 project into Unity 4:

http://unity3d.com/unity/faq ("How do I import my 3.x project into Unity 4.x?")
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentatio...Guide3540.html

Anyway I've finally managed to get ES running in OpenGL mode with Wine on Linux:



(this is a Linux screenshot, and the first screenshot ever taken of ES running on Linux in OpenGL mode )

The flag -force-opengl makes it crash at startup when using a vanilla Wine, because Unity 3 does something with OpenGL contexts that is acceptable for WGL, but not for the Linux equivalent layer called GLX. Hence it's likely that Endless Space in OpenGL mode will never be supported out-of-the-box by Wine: http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11436#c1
It has been working in the default Direct3D9 mode though, but it's slower (because Wine has to translate every Direct3D call into an OpenGL equivalent) and on my config at least it's currently full of glitches.

To play it with Wine at full speed with the -force-opengl flag you need to apply this hacky patch to Wine sources: 0099-EndlessSpace-WGL-ShareList-Hack.patch.zip and recompile it.
Alternatively I'm hosting pre-built Wine 1.5.29 packages for Ubuntu 12.10 packages here: http://www.homo-nebulus.fr/rehost/wine/
(the updater will keep asking to revert to the official Wine package, google the way to tell it to ignore updates for a specific package)

Also after Steam does its first time setup for Endless Space you need to delete (or backup) the system32 folder of the Wine environment (by default ~/.wine/drive_c/Windows/system32) and move a fresh system32 folder created by Wine for an empty profile in its place (the native DLLs installed by Steam makes the game crash at startup).


I really love to finally be able to play one of my coups de cœur of recent years on Linux, but as you can see it's a lot of hassles to get it running properly. Beforehand I wouldn't join people asking for a Linux version because the multiplayer issues and missing features like the battle cards in auto were much more important to fix, but now Linux support would really be awesome and I think many players would be really grateful and love Amplitude even more for it :

http://steamcommunity.com/app/208140...3952114941730/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/208140...5849381152129/

[adder]

It's good to see that the game is playable on linux (with some workarounds).

I agree that, eventually, the game should be released for linux - as it is more and more proving itself as a viable gaming platform.
However, I understand that it is low on amplitude's priorities list. First optimize the game further and release expansion packs. WHen that's done I think it should be possible to think about a port to linux. And the decision is ofcourse up to them.